Patient mistreatment of health care professionals

Mistreatment of health care professionals by patients is an ongoing problem. We aimed to construct and evaluate a curriculum that would prepare health care professionals for mistreatment by patients.

Lessons learned from 15 interviews and 2 focus groups with health care professionals were distilled into a multi-modal curriculum including didactics, simulation videos and role-play scenarios aimed to improve confidence in addressing mistreatment. This curriculum was disseminated at five educational workshops to health care professionals of various training groups and experience levels. Pre- and post-surveys were distributed to assess changes in participant's perspectives on readiness to address mistreatment. The signed-rank test was implemented to compare pre- and post- data.

Participants were more likely to agree post-workshop that they had the right words to say, had a plan for what to do, and were more willing to speak up when they themselves or someone else was mistreated (p < .001). They were also more likely to agree post-workshop that there was something they could do to address patient mistreatment (p < .001).

Participant familiarity and confidence in responding to patient mistreatment increased. Our curriculum may serve as a foundation for institutions seeking to equip their educators, health care professionals, and trainees with strategies for addressing this important issue.